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Ridiculous Chinese censorship used AI to change the gay couple in Together (2025) to a heterosexual couple
(hexbear.net)
Usually, they only censor the explicit content. But this is the first time that AI tools were used to directly alter the content of the original film.
By the way, the film has been withdrawn from a wide release in China after receiving too many complaints.
And why do you think they are overzealous with their changes?
Many Chinese shows have their scripts constantly altered and sometimes even have their entire storylines changed by the censors. It is one legitimate grievance many people have with the censorship.
In fact, it’s so common that people are already used to it. What’s different this time is the blatant use of AI to change the content to pass censorship.
Do you seriously think the censors are stupid and don’t know what’s being done to the film?
Because the west is absolutely swamped with media claiming all kinds of completely false things about China, the people believe them, and then they act on them if they're in a position of decision making power.
The censors don't give a shit what the producers are doing to the film. Their job is to judge the film they're given, not to send it back and say "actually you've gone too far with your changes here and here and here".
Maybe you have a case that they should be given the power to send it back and say "no don't change this". But that's not what their job is currently.
yeah this is a very blatant example of corpos being sinophobic & sloppy
The user you’re responding makes a lot of assumptions and doesn’t understand how import films are distributed in China. There is a distinct difference between buyout/acquisition films and revenue-sharing films. The film in question belongs to the former.
I've heard it described before (maybe it was by you actually, if so then just ignore me) that there's this general sort of dynamic where the companies learn to pre-emptively censor the media before the censors even get to it, because they've learned that it's best to do this to avoid the hassle. The problem is that they tend to be overly conservative and censor more than necessary. Do you think that's accurate?
Correct - it depends on how much time you want to spend wasting going back and forth with the censors.
From what’s written on the social media, the fact is that nobody even expected the film to have a release in China anyway, because of the explicit gay couple content as well as the body horror contents. So it was in fact a surprise that it got a wide release in the first place. Then people found out that certain parts of the film were completely altered lol.
Here's hoping for a course correction and a gay Chinese century. I know I would love to see Chinese films that explore those topics.
Maybe back in the 2010s… a lot have changed since Covid to be honest with you.
There are plenty of LGBT web indie films though. As I mentioned to another user here, I really like 去年烟火 from last year, it’s a short film about a lesbian couple in a small provincial town.
While this is a perfectly reasonable thing to point out, claiming it was the government doing it is just a literal flat-out lie.
It’s the same two companies that deal with government censorship with hundreds of imported films over the years. This isn’t someone who has no experience dealing with the censorship lol, they are literally the exclusive groups who were given the rights to distribute imported films. Do you seriously think that they don’t know what can or cannot be shown?
The ridiculous part is that they thought it would be good to use AI tool to directly alter the content on screen, rather than just not purchase the distribution rights at all.
See? That's a really good criticism. So why the lie?
You still don’t get it… sigh… These companies have to work with the censorship to get it to a release-appropriate state.
If it is buyout/acquisition film (this film in question), then the distributor will have to make the alterations.
If it is revenue-sharing film, then the film producers will have to make the alterations.
What’s so hard to understand?